Thursday, November 1, 2012

1 November 1927 - Peru Starts Down The Path

On 1 November 1927, Peru played their first official international, losing 0-4 to Uruguay in the South American Championship.

The history of Peruvian football dates back to the second half of the nineteenth century, when it was introduced by English sailors in the port of Callao. Its popularity quickly spread, with clubs sprouting up all across the country. That, in turn, led to the creation of the Peruvian Football Federation in 1922.

An unofficial national team played an exhibition against Uruguay that year, but it took another five years to form an official team sanctioned by FIFA. The catalyst was Peru's role as host of the 1927 South American Championship (the tournament now known as the Copa América).

They played their first match of the tournament against Uruguay at the Estadio Nacional in Lima and lost, 0-4 (the first goal was an own goal scored by Peru's Daniel Ulloa). They followed it with a 3-2 win over Bolivia and a 5-1 loss to Argentina to finish third out of four teams.

Since then, Peru has twice won the South American Championship (1939, 1975) and twice reached the World Cup quarterfinals (1970, 1978).